Safe Spaces Policy

We do not want to make a big thing about this but we want to make it clear that we are a friendly and inclusive event in a friendly and inclusive venue. We want everyone to be happy, feel safe, feel welcome, and the entire world to be perfect. If I am honest we are struggling at the world being perfect bit, but with your help we should be able to manage the rest of it. Below is our safe spaces policy.

We will have people attending with a variety of gender identities and sexual orientations. We will have people attending of all ages and maturities. We will have people attending who have visible disabilities and invisible disabilities. We will have people attending of many shapes and sizes. We will have people attending whose skin colour is the same as yours and different to yours. Some attendees will look and sound like you and some will look and sound very different to you. There will be many beliefs in the room, be they religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other beliefs and they will at times differ vastly from your beliefs. We will have Windows users, Mac users, and Linux users. Some will have voted to leave the EU and some to stay.

If you have a problem with being in the same space with any of these people then a BarCamp is probably not the event for you and you should not attend. If you can not treat everyone as an equal then a BarCamp is probably not the event for you and you should not attend. If you can agree to disagree, be tolerant and respectful, and try not to upset others then you are a tremendous person and we really want you to come.

If your views and beliefs differ to others then that is okay. Just do not allow them to upset or offend others. They will also be trying not to upset or offend you.

If you accidentally upset another attendee or make them feel uneasy, even if you did not intend to, even if you do not understand how this could happen, then you will want to work with the organisers to make things right and avoid any more upset. We all make mistakes.

If you purposely upset, hurt or otherwise abuse another attendee then I am afraid you are not welcome and will be asked to leave.

The event organisers are not judge and jury and are not responsible for enforcing morality on the world, but they are fixated on creating a friendly and welcoming environment where everyone feels safe. Please please please help us with that.

A BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering of people to share and learn in an open environment.

BarCampNortEast5 was held in Newcastle upon Tyne on the 21st and 22nd July 2018.